Montana Homeowner Ends Police Chase by Holding Suspect at Gunpoint

In this true story out of Missoula County, a vehicle theft suspect was pulled over by a Missoula County Sheriff’s Deputy. It was around 8:00 a.m., and the suspect was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Avalanche. After refusing verbal commands from the deputy, the suspect sped off in the stolen vehicle. This initiated a high-speed chase.

The suspect (later identified as 22-year-old Justin Douglas Delany) barreled through fields, fences, yards, and a construction site before crashing into a mailbox in Haven Heights. That’s when he abandoned the vehicle and decided to flee on foot.

Seeing the commotion outside, a vigilant neighbor got his gun ready just in time. Delany entered the man’s home in an attempt to wait out the police chase in the basement. Instead, the homeowner found him in the basement and led him out into the yard at gunpoint, where he was arrested. He was initially booked as a 22-year-old John Doe, but he eventually gave up his name to the police. Delany is now charged with felony theft, burglary and criminal mischief, as well as fleeing from and obstructing a peace officer.

There’s no drug charge on that list, but a search of the stolen Avalanche turned up a bag of methamphetamine.

This is the kind of ‘good guy with a gun’ story you won’t get from the mainstream media. We report on them as often as possible, and the archive can be found here.

With that being fresh in the minds of Missoula and area residents, I’m sure that was cause for second thoughts of gunning him down and doing the appropriate thing. Of course, one would have to recognized the difference between an German exchange student being gunned down and a meth-head puke. But still….

Self help is more common in MT than many places. County that I spend half the year in is maybe 100 miles long, and used to sometimes have a single deputy working graveyard shift. Which means that he can sometimes be over an hour away, when needed. One story is that there was an armed robbery in the middle of the county, and the miscreants fled for the border 40 or so miles away. The deputy was on the other end of the county, but they still didn’t make it out of state. The dispatcher called ahead, and they were apprehended at a roadblock set up by concerned citizens alerted by the dispatcher. No one was apparently injured.

The Missoula incident amounted to a home invasion. A road block by private citizens is very different. Thirty years ago, when many farmers were in deep financial trouble, there were a few idiots who believed they had the right to take on police powers as in stopping people on the road if they disapproved of their driving. My position was that I would stop only for someone driving a marked patrol vehicle and wearing a proper uniform. A pickup and a seed company cap didn’t count. Anyone like that who tried would find himself looking into the muzzle of a gun.

This is shocking coming from one of the most liberal cities in MT. Firearms banned in public places, illegal to transfer firearms within city limits without background check, illegal to conceal carry on the college campus. Of course Missoula has some of the most violent crimes in the state. Multi fatality shooting in a hotel room, murder, dismemberment and disposal in a vat of chemicals.